


a connection

by shouyoto



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Internet, M/M, Neighbors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 01:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14558319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shouyoto/pseuds/shouyoto
Summary: “Great.I’m neighbors with an asshole.” Shouyou says, sulkily, as he stuffs his face into the pillow....Shouyou moves into a new town with his family, and he meets an asshole who turns out to be not-actually-an-asshole. Also, these two decide that the network list is the best place for them to talk together.





	a connection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sage (the_ruined_earth_sagelord)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ruined_earth_sagelord/gifts).



> Entirely based on [this post.](https://twitter.com/shouyoto/status/948426684880977920) This is also a gift of appreciation (and a very truly belated birthday one) for Sage!

They were new in town when Shouyou was handed the task to set up the wifi.

The first few days in their new house were spent on cleaning, unpacking and tidying, and this went on for Shouyou until their wireless router had been discovered broken in the midst of unpacking. A new one had to be bought immediately on spot, his father decided, and Shouyou’s opportunity to explore arose when his father appointed him to be in charge.

And without wasting a breath, Shouyou took this as a chance to map through the town he so very wanted to explore.

His legs are pedaling the gears of his bike through the streets with much fervor, and the wind slaps against his skin, through his hair, in his ears, and he’s desperate, eager to unfold all the pieces of the place where it’s already breathing to him a sense of contentment within one take of its air.

The town is small, near the countryside and from what he’s gathered through the car trip on their way to their new neighborhood, it’s bursting with ocean of colors and floral scents which had all been a delightful welcome. There are more cherry trees than he’s ever counted, more spring flowers, and he feels the ache to tread through the tall sunflower fields when he sees them sitting by the bank of warm lakes.

Here, Shouyou could already tell there’s a promise to a fulfilling life for all the things it possess which Tokyo lacks.

Their neighbors are kind. They presented them with a fresh fruit basket as a warm welcome, and they helped Shouyou in his task earlier too when he asked them for directions on shops to purchase wifi accessories from. It’s only after many pauses in his track as he gets lost in discovering wonders of the small town and getting acquainted with the shop workers assisting him, Shouyou does finally manage to buy the much needed router.

But it also takes Shouyou plugging the router into a socket to realize he has no idea what he’s doing.

As it turns out, his small drops of knowledge in setting up the connection hadn’t been enough for him to carry through. Luckily, he has an internet service on his phone and it works well enough for him to do research on establishing the network, but when he feels his brain cells crumpling under the pressure of mind-consuming work later on, he ends up calling for his father who’d give him a guide.

It goes on until the night, until he becomes very sure of his closely approaching death at this point, but eventually, he gets there.

And then, something happens before the wee hours of an evening.

Shouyou’s sacrificed what little sleep he had for this one moment: on the screen, their connection– _‘Little giant’_ as he names it– has finally appeared under the list of available networks.

Like a switch, his body instantly slumps against his chair. His triumph have soaked him in waves of relief pleasantly, but the rapture feeling is outweighed by the lack of rest when he feels it immediately chipping away at his consciousness. He decides to call it the night, eyelids growing heavy, and moves his mouse to close the dock on his laptop.

But then he witnesses a sudden change of name as one of the other networks, with some fancy lock beside it, goes from _‘Setter Soul’_ to _‘I’m using little giant to torrent volleyball’._

Suddenly, Shouyou doesn't feel as tired. He shoots up from his seat, grows a pair of wide eyes and makes a sound quite close to, if not, an inhuman squawk.

He isn’t sure what to do. He _doesn’t_ know what to do. He’s flushing with shock, anger, but mostly confusion, and so, it’s entirely out of an impulse when he tries to connect to the other network but gets horrified to see a password is required for him to enter.

Oh, yes. He nearly forgets. The fancy lock means that it's a private connection. That _jerk_.

Then he’s furiously typing the next second, having his own network’s name changed to _‘How did you get that lock?!’_ because he can’t think of another way to reach out to this person, so he desperately hopes that they’d see.

And they definitely do see, all right. _‘Find out yourself.’_ The response files in with a glare of mockery in its words.

Shouyou grits his teeth, had to fling himself onto his bed for a moment first so he could scream, right into his pillow, without waking up his family.

_‘You’re an asshole.’_

_‘And your taste in music sucks.’_

_‘Are you snooping around my iTunes?!’_

_‘D'espairsRay? Their music is giving me despair, all right.’_

What comes afterwards had been a furious flurry of banters and threats. Insults thrown back and forth, buttons pushed and pressed repeatedly that it eventually reaches to the point where someone (who surprisingly notices them) has to step in and dismantle the aggressive tension. The ruckus does die down, but only for a while. Unlike _Asshole_ (as Shouyou decides on their name) the newcomer is much more helpful and incredibly kind enough to help him secure his connection.

Shouyou shouts in glee once he manages to achieve the private connection. Even more so, Asshole hasn’t said anything since the newcomer pops in to help but Shouyou feels the need to say something, to poke at him, because with the advent of the lock, the asshole should have been kicked out.

 _‘Hah, suck on my secured internet!’_ He grins smugly, saving the new change for a name.

Asshole replies, _‘Doesn’t change that your music still sucks.’_

They fight again.

* * *

Even if Shouyou manages to make his family’s network private, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’d signal the end to his interaction with Asshole _._

In fact, he only hopes that with his newly acquired skills, his life could be spared for a little longer in the future if he were to set up a router again; Shouyou doesn’t think he’d last if he has to deal with another asshole bursting into his life because his soul is already withering into ashes and that was just one he had to deal with and their constant presence.

But despite all this and the animosity they harbored for each other, they keep talking.

It’s unclear why they’re still talking when all they’ve done is point jabs at each other. Shouyou knows he should probably stop responding to them, but he’s never one to overlook when someone is picking a fight with him, and he's definitely not the kind to back down either, so truthfully, Shouyou does play some part of fault in here.

There’s never a fight when the two are talking, but then their fights soon become more playful, less intense, and before he knows it, it’d lead them to an occasional small, mindless talk, and— and it’s- well, it’s _weird_. It’s weird enough that they’re communicating through the network names, and it’s even weirder when he considers the possibility of having his family and his neighbors read their drifting, fleeting conversation.

Or… _their neighbors?_ Shouyou finds himself startled at this waking realization. Asshole has to be a neighbor of his after all for their networks to within each other’s range. There’s no way someone isn’t a neighbor if they popped up in their list, it doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

“Great. I’m _neighbors_ with an asshole.” Shouyou says, sulkily, as he stuffs his face into the pillow. Yet, surprisingly, he somehow feels less disappointed with the revelation than he thought he would have.

And so, this peculiarity they share continues and it has gone on for a good month now. Shouyou is currently in his post-graduation, and he still has yet to receive any of the acceptance letters from the universities he’s applied to so, he’s been making use of his free time doing various things, and chatting with Asshole become among these things.

From the looks of it, Asshole seems to be in the same shoe as him, because he’s fast, highly responsive, though there are times it takes a while for them to reply, it makes Shouyou wonder in the briefest moment if they’re around his age and whether they’re a postgraduate like he was too.

One day, he wakes up on a sunny morning nestled into the crook of his pillow, to Asshole’s new network name when he checks his phone.

 _'Are you awake?'_ The name reads, and it’s a question, and it’s something odd, so out of blue because they never ask him this, never did check in on him. Until now, that is. He knows that it’s Asshole too because he’s checked the list, their only other neighboring networks _(Cat Town, Thunder, Blueville, and the one that’s stepped in to stop them fighting before- Mountain Valley)_ haven’t changed their names at all since the start of thei strange routine.

Shouyou kicks the bed sheets off of him. He pads towards his laptop to switch it on, and when he hears it whirring to life, he goes on to day with some hot tea from the kitchen, but not before he could type out a new handle for his family’s network to let his presence be known.

_‘I am now!’_

_‘Finally. You slept for way too long.’_

_‘Aww, were you waiting for me?’_

_‘I bet you sleep like a log.’_

_Oh boy,_ Shouyou rolls his eyes, and sets his cup down onto the desk with a little more force than necessary. Now, just when he thinks how Asshole might be nice to him this time, they don’t and go back to square one, but he sets that aside for now in favor of shooting them back a furious reply.

“Brother!” Natsu announces her presence as she peeks her head into his room. “We’re going to the grocery store, and mom says that she wants you to come too!”

“Mm, okay.” Shouyou drones in reply.

 _“Now.”_ Natsu adds, and like that, she’s gone from the doorway.

He sighs, looking at his laptop then onto his unfinished drink. _‘I have to go,’_ He types in a rush, putting his laptop to sleep, but he forgets to confirm the change when Natsu calls for him again from downstairs.

It takes a while, because his parents has winded up bringing them on a tour around the town after they finish their groceries.

When they finally return home in early evening, Shouyou feels a little drained, but the tiredness gets replaced by a mild surprise when he comes back to read _‘I’m sorry.’_ on the display of his screen. He’s confused, isn’t entirely sure why the other is apologizing, but when he sees his unchanged network name since the morning, everything clicks in place.

He quickly sends an apology for his sudden disappearance, all the while trying to ignore how solemn the _‘I’m sorry’_ has sounded in his head and the plummeting feeling in his chest.

* * *

_Asshole_ , Shouyou muses, turns out to be not much of an asshole after all.

Well, in a way, they still are one since they haven’t stopped calling him a dumbass. But other than that, the condescending impression Shouyou had of them at first turns out to be a kind of misconception. Asshole speaks in a tone that settles for something less than arrogance, something more than a little straightforward, and to put it simply they’re brutally blunt with their words, even when they don’t know it, and Shouyou isn’t afraid at all to call him out.

Even on the rare occasions when the two are sharing a conversation on a topic pertaining to some depth in their lives, Asshole is being blunt.

Their responses are short too, often- no, _usually_ , and it’s short enough that Shouyou doesn’t need to keep changing his network name to urge Asshole to continue (something that they do for him) after he’s done reading their text. It’s the little things like these that’s altered his view on Asshole because clearly, they didn’t mind how Shouyou is always brimming with a head full of words and even catered to him with a few words like _‘Wow.’_ or _‘Cool.’_

 _‘You talk too much.’_ The words flash through his laptop screen after Shouyou finishes his storytelling of his ‘the most epic super fun incredible forest adventure’ when he was a kid, but Shouyou knows that there’s no bite to those words; it’s just Asshole punctuating their thoughts in such a way that makes it seem so much like they’re stating a fact.

He’s aware that the man- or woman- or _whoever-_ on the other side won’t see him but that doesn’t stop him from sticking out his tongue at the screen as he retorts. _‘And you talk too little!’_

There’s no reply for a little while, but as soon as one comes in, Shouyou knows he’s in for a night of longer banters than the usual.

* * *

Their neighboring networks joins in their conversations sometimes, but it happens once in a while.

Mountain Valley is nice as ever, and Thunder gives Shouyou the vibe of a well-respected awesome upperclassman. Blueville, on the other hand, while there’s something about them that doesn’t feel quite right, they could be fun to talk to as well.

At first, it was hard to keep a track on _who’s_ saying _which,_  and there was the one time everything has spiraled down into a big mess of garbage dump because no one knew who was who that they all ended up changing their network names back to what it originally is. Then from that point onward, whenever they have conversation in groups, they have a mutual agreement on leaving the first initial of their network handles at the start of their message.

Shouyou thinks it’s pretty cool, especially how they’re _all_ neighbors, living in the same area, and how they don’t mind this strange thing they’re doing, and he briefly wonders if he gets to meet them all properly in person one day.

But there’s one neighbor who never joins them until the day they seemingly had enough.

This time, it’s only Asshole and Shouyou engaging in a conversation, and they’re talking about their favorite sports which coincidentally is volleyball and they’re quick to passionately talk about it when Cat Town barges in with their newly set name, _‘Oi, communicate like normal people.’_

 _‘Huh?’_ Asshole says, and Shouyou copies them.

It takes a while for Cat Town’s name to change again. _’Don’t you guys have social medias?’_ and then another, ‘ _Or phone numbers?’_ and Shouyou sits there, feeling an imaginal rock thrown at the side of his head at the existence of given options.

Shouyou embarrassedly types, _‘I… didn’t think of that.’_

 _‘Me neither.’_ Asshole types too.

_‘Oh my god, you both are idiots.’_

Shouyou has to exchange his number with Asshole’s pretty quick afterwards before anyone else gets the chance to see them and jot them down— although Shouyou has a feeling that no one would even be bothered with them at this point. Cat Town’s interruption could stand to be a testament to that. Soon enough, Shouyou’s network name goes back to being Little Giant, and as for Asshole, Setter Soul.

Chatting through phone turns out to be far, _far_ more convenient than using the network name, and Shouyou couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of exchanging phone numbers before.

But then… things begin to get even weirder from there.

Asshole turns out to be a man and he turns out to have a name as well after all.

His name is Kageyama Tobio, he is a postgraduate like Shouyou and he’s a bit younger than him. The name is pretty cute, fitting even. There’s a kind of charm to it that resonates well with Kageyama’s character: awkward, somehow dorky, and it’s totally different than the first impression of a douchebag vibe which Kageyama had given him.

Now that they have some privacy to themselves, it’s more bearable as well. There’s more room for them to talk about themselves, they can talk about anything they want, but they’re _alone,_ and the thought of this makes Shouyou's stomach squirm. Their conversations are sheltered now from the outside world; no outsiders to prey on the words they’d send to each other, no _Mountain Valley_ or _Cat Town_ to dance into their conversation freely, and as nice as it is to have their own privacy, Shouyou finds it would still take some time for him to get used to these new changes, and he does get used to it within a week's time.

And one day, Kageyama accidentally sends him something.

Kageyama sends him a picture. Only, it isn’t any picture, it’s the one where Shouyou finally gets to see the face of the man behind the screen who he’s been talking to. Although the possibility it isn’t Kageyama still stands since there isn’t any kind of caption attached to the picture sent, but Shouyou is pretty sure that it’s him.

The man in picture is understandably and impossibly attractive; short black hair with bangs tapered to a v-shape, a nose slotting from a high bridge into a perfect size of a mold, dark eyes and a pair of unfairly tempting lips.

 _‘Is that you?’_ Shouyou asks.

 _‘Oh. Yes, it’s me.’_ Kageyama texts him a bit later and Shouyou’s heart flutters at the confirmation, _‘Sorry. Sent it by accident.’_

 _A beautiful and most gracious accident the world has to offer,_ Shouyou thinks and nearly smacks himself in the face at the thought.

He spends the next few moments on (definitely not) breathlessly fawning over Kageyama then. He squints at one point later, thinking that he might have seen this face somewhere before… which would make sense, he supposes. Kageyama _is_ his neighbor after all, so he’s bound to have seen him at least once or twice.

Turning onto his back on his bed, Shouyou turns the camera on his phone to his face. He shifts around on his mattress, determined to find the perfect spot and the perfect angle for a selfie, and when he does find it, he snaps a picture of himself with a peace sign thrown up and a big bright smile peering into his phone screen.

Shouyou sends the picture to Kageyama, but only after he’s mustered enough courage.

He receives a text sometime later, and Shouyou’s face has grown thousands of shades darker than the hot red surface of the sun, stars in his chest dancing and bursting with bright lights as he reads the newly received text from Kageyama.

 _‘Cute.’_ Kageyama says.

 _‘I know! I am!’_ Shouyou returns the message with an emoji of a tongue sticking out to the side. It’s then an idea strikes him.

He wonders, what if they were to meet up? Meet properly for their first time, get to know each other more, and it’s not as if they live far, they’re neighbors, so it seems like a good option and a convenience for them to try.

But then Shouyou begins to mull over the details should they decide to meet. On one hand, it’s nice to finally see Kageyama face-to-face, but then he thinks about his attractive face, then some more thousands of other thoughts that could go terribly, horribly wrong.

“What if I make a fool out of myself?” He thinks aloud, shuddering at the worst scenarios playing in his head.

There’s a part of his mind that’s waging war with his doubts, whispering to him the chances of it being one among millions of things that could go great too, that it could be the best opportunity he’d miss out on, and so, he decides to give it a try.

With firecrackers lighting the sparks off his skin, he finally sends Kageyama the question in mind and puts his phone back down on his desk after.

He waits for the reply, but then two minutes passes by, five, fifteen, and by the thirtieth, he begins to panic and thinks he’s said the wrong thing, but he also tries to rationalize himself, that Kageyama is probably busy, and it’s not the first time he doesn’t reply within thirty minutes, so he decides to put his mind on something else. But then his phone sings an alarm, notifying him of an incoming text.

 _‘Sure. When?’_ He reads on the screen.

He stares at the text, dumbfounded. Then, in the next second, he finds himself catching up in his sheer excitement Kageyama’s agreement has brought him that he dives back under his sheets to rejoice.

_‘Let's meet up tomorrow!’_

_‘... Tomorrow?’_

_‘I mean…’_ He pauses on typing, biting his lips to think of a reason. ‘ _We’re neighbors, aren’t we?’_

_‘Oh, yeah. Tomorrow then. Where?’_

_‘Great! Let's meet around three in the afternoon, yeah? We could just… stand outside the house and look for each other?’_

_‘Sure.’_

They’re going to meet each other. Their first meeting. Their _very_ first meeting. After two to three months of talking, they would meet. They’re going to meet up, and then– and then- _talk?_ Shouyou doesn’t know what they will do once they run into each other but he figures a little trip around the town wouldn’t hurt.

He starts rolling around in his bed, grinning so widely through the entire time it starts to hurt his cheeks. It takes him five more minutes to recompose himself, click open his phone and fervently expressing his joy by flooding Kageyama’s inbox with dozens of emojis, finally ending his spree with a good night text.

 _‘Night. See you tomorrow.’_ Kageyama replies, and it’s to this and the low humming pleasant sound within the room Shouyou has fallen asleep to.

* * *

Shouyou goes out for his daily run in the early morning. He admits, he is quite eager to meet Kageyama later on, but he’s been feeling nervous too since he wakes up which had been way too early, and it's worse that he doesn’t feel as ready as he did last night for their meeting. So, he figures that he’d run a little more around the neighborhood would do him a good favour.

He starts his routine with a few simple stretches before dashing through the sidewalk with every mighty kick off the ground. He does this, picking up his pace every few meters, until the familiar ache begins to settle in his legs, until his nerves dissipates, replaced by the good burn of jogging. And by the time he feels completely flushed of his nervousness, he decides to put an end to his routine there and jog back— but then, a voice speaks to him out of nowhere, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

“You’re even shorter than I imagined.”

Shouyou squeaks in surprise. He completely stills to a stop, his head turning ever so slowly to the side and sees- then nearly chokes when he’s met by the face he spends staring on his phone for a while the previous night.

Kageyama in person, is much more handsome than the Kageyama in picture. The first thing he notices, are the eyes. In the picture, Kageyama’s eyes had been dark, pitch black, but it might have been the bad lighting because here, under the ray of sun where it’s hitting his eyes, Shouyou could see their colors threaded in all hues of grays and blues.

The second thing he notices is that Kageyama is _tall_. He stands at least a head taller than him, much to his annoyance, and he’s wearing what looks to be a sportswear.

“You–?” Shouyou gapes, definitely quietly reeling over how he’s meeting Kageyama earlier than their promised time. “Y-you– oh, um, _er,_ you run too?” He dumbly asks.

Kageyama blinks, somehow glaring. “I always run at this time.” He says, muttering, and then, Shouyou gawks, no longer shaken but shocked by the fact how they have never bumped into each other on their run.

“That’s funny, because I always run at this time too!” Shouyou says, and Kageyama looks surprised himself at this too.

“Oh.” He tells, growing quiet, and Shouyou can’t help but be amused at how well Kageyama’s way of texting has reflected him within just a few seconds into their meeting in person.

“So, uh.” Shouyou starts. They’ve already met each other now, and it sounds awkward to have them leave things as they are now only to get back together at later time. Heaving a deep breath, he points a thumb to another direction and gathers up his courage to ask, “Wanna go for a run together?”

But Kageyama doesn’t even wait for him, much less sparing him a glance as he suddenly runs past him with a breeze. “If you can catch up to me, that is, dumbass.”

“Wait… Huh?” Shouyou says dumbly for the second time, the gears in his head still wheeling until it clicks. “What the– hey! That’s totally cheating!” He shouts, and doesn’t think twice to chase after him, his laughter twinkling in the air.

* * *

It’s no secret that the two had a whole rocky start at first, but somehow, they still managed to get along. Then somehow, somewhere along the way, they end up developing feelings for each other, and well— here they are.

 _‘Hey, guys! We're dating now!’_ Shouyou changes his network name for the first time in a while, to tell their neighbors slash network name friends of some great news.

 _‘Finally!’_ Mountain Valley says a moment later.

 _‘Yeah, we knew.’_ Thunder follows, although their words ends up feeding both Shouyou and Tobio confusion.

But overall, their neighbours responded to their news with a glee and that's enough to make them happy.

After all, it too was from here where their connection had begin, where the connection had been the weakest but grown to be strong in time. So, it's only fair to let the ones who'd been there at the start to know where they are now, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I need to admit that this fic is not at its best but I couldn't delay it any further. ;; There are a few challenging aspects I've come across writing this mostly because 90% of it is texting-based but it's something I want to explore and learn a little more writing it.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Do leave some feedback, whether kudos or comments, if you enjoyed this fic! You can find me as **@shouyoto** on twitter and tumblr.


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